Gloria Naylor Quotes

The more we have the less we own.

The question becomes not just how to accumulate more, but how to covet less.

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.

Our culture highlights the desire to always have more, even when we should be grateful for what we have.

We have allowed ourselves to be defined by our consumption instead of by our ability to move beyond it.

I have no use for eight houses, 88 cars and 500 suits. I can't eat but one steak at a time. I don't want but one woman. It's silly to have as one's sole object in life just making money, accumulating wealth.

The very longing for contentment that ought to drive us to simplicity of life and labors of love contents itself instead with the broken cisterns of prosperity and comfort.

We were all brought up to want things and maybe the world isn't big enough for all that wanting. I don't know. I don't know anything

One day there springs up the desire for money and for all that money can provide — the superfluous, luxury in eating, luxury in dressing, trifles. Needs increase because one thing calls for another. The result is uncontrollable dissatisfaction. Let us remain as empty as possible so that God can fill us up.

Man needs so little... yet he begins wanting so much.

How few our real wants, and how vast our imaginary ones!

He is not poor that hath not much, but he that craves much.

Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists when you can ignore them like wise men?

Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three - and paradise is when you have none.

I am totally unattached to material items.

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in contentment.

At home, growing up, we weren't really poor. We had everything we needed, we just didn't have what we wanted.

The American dream is a crock. Stop wanting everything. Everyone should wear jeans and have three T-shirts, eat rice and beans.

I really don't require a whole lot in life.

I'm not an overly material person. Sure, I like certain comforts in life. But buying a lot of 'things' doesn't produce happiness for me.

I don't like to attach myself to material things.

Homer Simpson is one of my favorite people, though he's not real. He represents the American who's filled with this 'affluenza.' He's constantly exposed to consumption and a sense of bigness, which is a part of being an American.

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.

I'm not a materialistic person.

During the 80s and 90s, we all became consumed with ourselves. In the 21st century, we've come back to simpler times. People are struggling economically and this has forced them to scale back the material aspects of their lives and realise the beauty of finding the simple joy in being with the people we love.